Provenance of the Neogene Deposits in the Western Himalayan Foreland
Basin: Implications for Drainage Reorganization during the Late Miocene
Uplift of the Himalaya
Abstract
Interaction between large-scale tectonics of the Himalaya and the Indian
summer monsoon play a major role in shaping drainage systems of major
Himalayan rivers. In this study we attempted to track the sediment
sources of the Neogene‒Quaternary fluvial deposits of the Kasauli
Formation and Siwalik Group in the Subathu Basin of the Western
Himalayan foreland basin. The depositional interval of these deposits
spans from middle Miocene to Pliocene which overlap with the onset of
Indian monsoon and its influence on the denudation of Himalayan rocks.
Provenance analysis based on our detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology and
bulk rock Sr-Nd-Hf isotope data indicates that these Neogene‒Quaternary
rocks record chiefly the exhumation of the Higher Himalayan Crystalline
Sequence. However, at recurrent intervals within the Siwalik Group the
presence of zircon population 40–110 Ma in age suggests a sediment
sourcing from the Trans Himalayan batholith. We propose that the Sutlej
River that originates in south Tibet acted as a transverse
paleodispersal system and routed these arc-derived sediments to the
Himalayan foreland basin via one of its extinct paleochannels. Zircon
data suggest that this across-orogen routing system was particularly
effective during the deposition of Middle Siwalik Formation (ca 11- 4.5
Ma), when the rate of uplift of the Himalaya decreased. On the other
hand, the small-scale fluctuations in the presence of the Trans
Himalayan zircons observed in the Lower and Upper Siwalik formations may
primarily reflect climatic forcing, which induced changing monsoon
precipitation and the Sutlej’s transport capacity between dry and moist
periods.